It's not just for cosmetics. Many video cards block two expansion slots. Some block three, and I think a few block four. If you can use a cable to make it poss

It's not just for cosmetics. Many video cards block two expansion slots. Some block three, and I think a few block four. If you can use a cable to make it possible mount that card away from your motherboard in a place where it blocks exactly one slot, then you've freed up several-to-many expansion slots. Source: I did this in my PC. I actually bought a large case so that I could do things like this.